What an interesting week! First off, Monday was great. Another awesome p-day. We got things done early in the day so we were able to just take it easy and shop and clean until we had to leave to go to Amsterdam. We spent the night in Amsterdam on Monday night because we had to be in Leiden for the temple early Tuesday morning. It was awesome because the Amsterdam Elders are Elder Taylor, and Elder Van Komen, these are the AP's and theyre so sick, then Elder Sosa and Elder Bean. Sosa is a streetfighter/rapper from chile, and bean is a best friend from the MTC. This was so fun! Elder Alston is really close to the AP's so we were both pumped. On Tuesday, we went to the Temple. This was an incredible experience. It was so nice to be back in that beautiful building. I was there with my best friend from high school, Elder Yocom, so that made it even better. The session was in Dutch, so that made it interesting. I was able to get what it was saying just based off of context and I've been to the temple a lot so I know whats going on. I learned so much at the temple, and had a very spiritual experience. I'm so grateful for it. After the temple, we had Zone Conference and ate 1000 euro worth of dominos pizza. Me and Elder Yocom, bean, bosco, and others sat at the table and it was like the MTC. It was so great. We learned a lot as well. That night, we traveled back to Enschede. On Wednesday, we taught Lillian the second lesson. Our joint teach, who speaks spanish, is Zr. Wekking. She is from Mexico and married a Dutch man here. She speaks good dutch, but fluent spanish obviously so she is great to have with us. She literally taught the whole lesson, while we bore testimony in dutch haha. She served a mission in Mexico so she knows what to say and she said a month ago, she had a dream that she was teaching someone but didnt have a companion and she thought it was strange. Now she knows what her dream was about. A miracle. Lillian, after, told us how she saw the missionaries in Dominican Republic but never talked to them, but now she knows the reason she came to Nederland, and that was to meet the missionaries and get baptized. She is incredible. I'm so grateful for this experience. That night, I went home, read some letters, and cut my own hair! I was nervous cause my sister usually did it at home and made it look incredible, but I'm a noob but did what her husband Shawn did, and cut my own hair. I'm looking ongeloofelijk. Really, I did good. It was easy. On Thursday, we did some look ups and made awesome appointments. We have some very positive lessons for this week. We will be busy and hopefully make a few baptismal challenges. Our investigator Dhana, from Indonesia, said he wants to take us to dinner tonight and tell us something. We are pretty nervous. We have been pretty bold with him because he is beating around the bush quite a bit and hes been investigating for a year and a half and isnt going anywhere. He has a date for Nov. 9th, and we told him he needs to tell us his decision by Saturday. We are nervous. I love him to death. On Friday, We taught Lillian the third lesson. Zr. Wekking, again taught it. She loves it and totally understands everything. Tomorrow, I will be on exchanges with the District Leader and we are going to teach her Tithing and Prophets. This will be great! I will have to take charge. Dutch, here I come. On Saturday, we went to Dhanas and gave him the ultimatum. We watches some Elder Holland talks, and went bold and to the point. I just sat back cause I knew the spirit was there and I knew it hit him like a train. Towards the end of the lesson, I bore testimony. I can honestly say that I have never felt that spirit like that in my entire life. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I hope Dhana felt it, cause It wasnt me talking or even bearing testimony, it was the Spirit. I'm excited to see where he goes now. We are still working with esther, Saturday night, we taught her Service from lesson 5. She is nervous about a calling, but willing. Thats great. We did service for a ward member on Saturday and it was awesome. He is an old dutch man with his wife. He served in WWII. It's interesting to hear his point of view of it. Hes a great man. His wife just overcame Breast Cancer, and isnt a member but now sees God in her life so we'll see if she goes anywhere. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I'm so grateful for the scriptures. I am about to finish the New Testament, and learning about Christ and His life has really strengthened my testimony of Him. I know He is in missionary work. I see it, I feel it. I'm grateful for it. I'm so grateful for you all. Thanks for the letters. I love getting them! Have a great week, I'll write ya next week! This should be an awesome and eventful week. Love you all. 

Elder Elkins

FIRST BAPTISM!

What a great week!

This week was amazing! Monday through Wednesday, we prepared Esther for her baptism! On Wednesday, we had to go to Zwolle for interviews with the mission president. This was so great. President Robinson and Sister Robinson are so amazing. We had great talks and President just told me he is really proud of me and that he can tell that out of the group of 30 missionaries who came in, I was one of the most impressive! Of course it's not me at all. I didn't do anything to have this success! God prepared Esther and just used me as a tool in his hands. That was really great to hear! They are so great. Also, out investigator Lillian. I found her a few weeks back on the street on exchanges with the Zone Leader. I talked to her and realized that she only knew a tiny bit of dutch, and less english. She only speak Spanish! So sick. We took a member from our ward with us who is from mexico, to our lesson with Lillian. They became really good friends. We taught her through translating! The member had to translate what we were saying in Dutch, to Spanish. Lillian felt the spirit and said she would pray to know if it was true. On Sunday, during gospel principles, we had to teach Lillian a lesson because she came to church! We didnt know spanish, so we just put in a move '"The Restoration"" and made it in spanish. After the movie, Lillian said she Absolutely knows that Joseph was a prophet, and doesnt know how people could deny it. Then she asked if she could be baptized, and we said "How about November 16th?". She happily agreed and wants her 12 year old son to be baptized as well! That is so amazing! Such a great experience that we will be having this next transfer.

After Esthers baptismal interview on Wednesday, She asked me to baptize her! That was crazy because we thought that Elder Alston was going to. This was such a great experience for me. I was so happy. A little nervous, just because I have no muscle and shes a little bigger... but all went well! I'm so grateful for how blessed I have been this first transfer. I will work on Dutch this next transfer. I was blessed with the Gift of Tounges, but I think that was mis-interpreted. I think by gift of tounges, I was blessed with liking all of the food here.... Thats not good. I CAN NOT GO BACK TO THE OLD ELKINS. :) Anyway, what a great week. We did some look ups from old investigators and made some appointments. One guy that we looked up, answered the door in his boxers and eating a banana and asked if we could come back next week. That was interesting. We also got a referral! That will be great. Her name is Linda and I honestly got emotional when I heard her name. I miss my Grandma!!! She is with me though. I hope that goes well with her.

Transfer calls were last night. I thought that I was going to leave Enschede and go with a missionary who is also going on their second transfer, but they decided to wait one more transfer before putting us all together. Me and Elder Alston are staying for one more! Hengelo Elders got white washed though, so two new elder will take over Hengelo. Hengelo is giving us all of their Investigators that they had in Enschede, so now it will be back to normal. They have a lot of good Investigators too. This will be a great, great transfer. They had a baptismal date for Nov. 2nd with an investigator named Dhona. He is from Indonesida, and absolutely so sick. He has been investigating for over a year, and just needs someone to be bold with him. Weve got that. He loves us too! I'm really excited to work with him and the other potentials that we have. We have a man from jamaica that we found this week. He said back in Jamaica, he met with the missionaries for a year and was really really excited to see us. He freaked out because he didnt think missionaries were in Europe. He will be baptized too! I'm so excited. The lord has prepared people and I see that first hand. Esther was a prime example of that. She was singing songs about how god is good all day and was freaking out when she could take the sacrament after being baptized! It was really cool to see.

Well today and tomorrow, we will move into our new Enschede apartment. It is really nice! I will be there for at least the next 6 weeks, so if you want to send me letters, send them to this address!:)

Hofstraat 25

7511 HD Enschede

Netherlands

Please send me letters as well! I love hearing from you all. I hope you all had a great week. This week was amazing, and this next one will be even better probably! Its getting really really cold here though! I hope Utah is treating you all well. I miss it! I love you all. God is good. The Church is True.

Dooiiiiiii,

- Elder Elkins

Its amazing how fast time goes here! People always say that the mission goes really fast, but its also really hard at first. Don't get me wrong, it's been hard, but not too bad! I really enjoy and love it. The mission has really treated me well. It's definitely pretty hard concidering that we are opening Enschede, but things are starting to take shape. Of course, I dont know any other different mission style other than opening, because it's all ive done, but it has been different than what I thought it would be! We are always trying to figure out the best ways to do things, and we find ourselves always figuring out what to do! Thanks to the spirit. Conference was great, especially to help us. The members hear needed to hear that they need to step it up. We need their help! They needed something to fire them up, and I hope that this does the trick. 

Of course, last week was a great week! We were really pumped to watch general conference all week. On Friday, we went to Esthers house to teach her tithing. This is like the last thing we need to teach her. We were really worried about this topic, because she's told us before how all the churches in africa only want your money. We taught her very carefully, and she accepted it really well! She told us that she doesnt work, but asked how she can donate anyway and that caught us completely off guard! We taught her fasting, and offered to fast with her on Sunday for the exam that she is taking on Thursday. This exam decides whether or not she can get a passport or something so it's been stressing her out! She was really excited to fast. On Saturday, we went to her house and she made food for us, we watched the Saturday morning session of conference live at about 6pm, then started our fast for Sunday. This was an incredible experience. It is so different watching conference here, but I felt as if I was at home. The spirit was so strong in her house during conference. It felt so close to home, the only difference was that I had a 51 year old black lady sitting on my right, and a 56 year old dutch man on my left. I guess thats pretty different then home haha. It will be exciting this week! Her baptism is at 3 on Saturday :)

On Sunday, we woke up and went straight to Apeldoorn, about an hour away from Hengelo. We watched the Priesthood session at the Stake Conference. This was in Dutch, so naturally, I didnt get anything out of it except for Home Teaching is important.. haha. I will have to rewatch it soon in English. After this, we watched the Saturday Afternoon Session, and this was great. Then later we watched the Sunday Morning session live at 6pm. It was so weird knowing that you all at home were watching the same thing as me, but it was morning for you, and dark for me! We didnt get home until about midnight last night because there was construction on the rail lines, so we had a mess getting home with busses and different trains. General Conference was unreal though. I loved it. 

This week, we are moving into our new apartment in Enschede! It is probably the nicest apartment in the mission. We are really lucky! It's right in the middle of the city in the centrum by all of the cool stores. Its really fun. That will be nice. Transfers are already next week though, so hopefully me and Elder Alston stay together for another transfer in Enschede. Anything can happedn though! I will find out next Sunday! 

This has been a great week, and I have learned a lot. I love street contacting people and knocking doors as well. It's really hard with my limited dutch, and my astounding akwardness, but it seems to go alright :) Elder Alston helps me a lot. I'm really loving my mission so far! 

My spiritual topic of the week is on Gifford Nelson's talk. Of Course. Go Cougs... jk. but really! He gave a great talk. I want you guys to take his advice and 

 1. Pray to bring someone closer to the gospel everyday.

 2. Pray for missionaries in your area and their investigators by name, everday.

 3. Invite a friend to an activity in or out of your house.

The topic for conference had a lot to do with member missionaries. It really is true. The Lord is hastening His work, and I see this first hand. We NEED you. We need the members. It is so important. You can justify and say "Well, we live in Utah, it will all be taken care of" But I dont know if you know this, but Utah is the highest baptizing mission in the world. There are always people to teach. Go ahead, try this. Be a missonary. Especially my cousins. Jake Lamb, Seth Lamb, Jaxson Miller, Bailey Miller, Andrew Lewis, Preston Lewis, and Parker, my brother. I promise you guys that if you do this, and strive to be missionaries NOW, God will bless you and make you a better missionary when your on your mission. I guarantee this. I know you all have friends who aren't members. Don't be afraid to bear your testimony. Use your English one while you have it :) I challenge you :) 

I love you all, and I'm really excited to hear from you guys! Have a great week. Be better today than you were yesterday :) 

Elder Elkins

Another week down!!

Another week down in the best country in the world :)

This has been a great one! Missionary work has treated me well. It is absolutely nothing like I imagined before my mission. It is actually way fun and different everyday. I'm so grateful to be in this country. It really honestly is the best mission in the world. Especially when we look around and also realize that we have the best mission president and missionaries as well ;) 

I'll stop making you jealous and move on. My bad. 

 

This week has been great! Missionary work is starting to seem more natural. We are putting a lot of time and effort in the non active members in the ward so we spend a lot of time with them. They are so amazing and we have one non active, Melvin, who is starting to come back. He likes us a lot and we went over to his house and helped him move couches, I shared a message about prayer and how we recieve answers, and the next day he came to church. We are going to visit him every week. His wife makes us great african food as well. My favorite food here so far is probably stroopwaffels, because their cheap and just amazing, or I love the african food that people make. Some of it is disgusting like the fish from african with all the bones and stuff in it, but the rice is killer. Also, I really like cheese and they eat cheese and bread here with ever meal. I'll start taking pictures of stuff and send them home. The food is great. I think I have gained like 3 pounds just these past 2 months. Expect the old Austin to return faster than normal ;) Especially in the winter. Everyone says in the winter here, everyone gets fat. Everyone. I will probably just look better at the end of the winter. I'm not a follower. I'll be the leader ;) 

 

We have had some pretty cool experiences here. I have seen miracles and I love it. Esther, our baptism, is a miracle. Me and Elder Alston went to teach her on Friday. We have been teaaching Esther really fast and she seems to accept everything, so me and Elder Alston were both worried with what she really understood. Fridays lesson we just went in and asked questions about what she knew. We asked about Prophets and she nailed that question, then the Priesthood. She said "Yeah, like in the Catholic Church, they have the priests and stuff. Thats the Priesthood." We were like... haha no. Now she understands though :) Then we got into a good discussion. She is so prepared and so happy. We told her next time we were going to talk about some things like the commandments and she said "Like the ten commandments?" we said yeah and she said "Yeah, I follow them and I quit smoking 3 years ago and dont drink either". Wow, this was cool. Before we even brought up the Word of Wisdom, which was one of our worries, she ways shes totally cool with it. She is so funny. She called us after we left and said "I really really like wearing earrings, necklaces, and rings. Am I allowed to wear those in your church, because I can give them up if not." We just laughed and said of course you can! Then she hung up and called again in five more minutes and said "What about perfume? I really love perfume." We said of course once again! It's amazing how prepared she was. She said she doesnt know why she quit smoking 3 years ago, but now she does. She is funny and has the typical african culture. She always tells us how fat she is and how she needs to walk an hour a day to lose weight. Her dr. told her haha. She said when she walks, she sings a song that goes like this "I'm going to follow jesus, and nobody can stop me". and repeats, and reapeats. She is crazy, but sooo amazing. She says that since her two sons are still in Nigeria, we are her two sons now. She cooked us great food on Saturday. She is getting baptized on the 12th, and that will be sooo amazing. I am so blessed. This work is so up to God. We are nothing without him. This is His work. We are just tools. I'm grateful for a companion who can teach me that as well. 

 

We had zone conference on Thursday and that was great. It was in Rotterdam so it was really cool to see that city as well. The spirit was so strong in zone conference and I learned a lot. The work in Europe is exploding, and its only getting better. We are in a "Dry Fly" mission, not a "Chumming" mission. My dad will get that :) It's really amazing. I love this country! 

We get the keys to our new apartment in Enschede today. We dont know yet when we 

are moving there. It can be any time really! I will let you all know when I get my address there. I think me and Elder Alston will both stay one more transfer here. I really hope so! At least one more. The Ward is still doing great. They feed us almost every night! Thats a huge thing in this stake. 6 months ago, Elder Holland came and spoke to our stake and told them they need to be better mormons and feed the Elders.... They took that seriously I guess haha. Tonight, we have a dinner appointment with a great family. The mom cooks great, the daughter is cool, and the Dad speaks Twents. This is a dialect of Dutch here in Hengelo area. Its absolutely impossible to understand him. I just shake my head yes and dont know what I agree too. Oh well. I'm not hear to stress about language, I'm hear to be a missionary :) We have had great experiences and I'm sure they will keep coming. Yesterday in church, President and Sister Robinson came and spoke to our ward. It was the fifth sunday, so they came. It was really cool to hear from them. They are amazing people. I'm so grateful to have them guide us missionaries for the next two years. I'm glad that I wont have to have a change in the Presidency while I'm here. They go home the same transfer I will! Thats so cool. I'm not looking forward to going home though. You guys all have to witness another bad BYU team, Utah getting lucky, and other stuff going on. Have fun :) I'll sit back here next summer and watch either Belgium or Netherlands win the World Cup. Especially since both are ranked in the top ten :) I'm so excited. 

Missionary work is going hard over here. We're doing good, and we as missionaries feel all of your prayers! Help the missionaries at home! It's impossible without the members. 

Thanks for everything! I miss you all. Have a great week. I pray for you all, and I can feel your prayers! I'm excited for another quick, but eventfull week. Ik hou van jullie!

Elder Elkins